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Sunken Thinned Gaunt Face from Braces
At 34 i decided to get braces to correct my deep overbite. Now, after a year of treatment, my cheeks and temples are completely sunken in. While my teeth look great, my face looks terrible. Looking back, it began when I started treatment and thinned out a little each month. A few months in I read some stories online about this happening to others, so I considered stopping treatment and brought it up to my ortho, who insisted that it wouldn't happen to me. Now that it has, my ortho says it isn't that bad and it must be something else, not the braces. I have aged 15 years in one year. My skin is saggy and I have hollowed out cheeks and loose skin on my face and neck. This has been devastating for me.
I believe the older you are, the worse this is. If I had braces as a teen, this wouldn't have been an issue. I did not lose weight or have teeth extracted. I believe this is worse with a deep overbite. If you have an open bite or under bite it doesn't seem to happen. If you have a fat face to begin with, you may like the change. Or if your teeth are horribly crooked, you may be so glad to have straight teeth that you don't mind. But if your teeth aren't that bad, like mine, and you like your face and are in your 30s or older, don't do it! I wish I could go back to that day so bad and tell myself not to do it! I am so sick over this. Look at before and after photos of adult braces, and look at the faces instead of the teeth. Almost all of them have thinner faces and look way older. Whether you have teeth extracted or not! If you want to see photos, pm me and I'll share them, I'm just not comfortable putting them out there.
I believe the older you are, the worse this is. If I had braces as a teen, this wouldn't have been an issue. I did not lose weight or have teeth extracted. I believe this is worse with a deep overbite. If you have an open bite or under bite it doesn't seem to happen. If you have a fat face to begin with, you may like the change. Or if your teeth are horribly crooked, you may be so glad to have straight teeth that you don't mind. But if your teeth aren't that bad, like mine, and you like your face and are in your 30s or older, don't do it! I wish I could go back to that day so bad and tell myself not to do it! I am so sick over this. Look at before and after photos of adult braces, and look at the faces instead of the teeth. Almost all of them have thinner faces and look way older. Whether you have teeth extracted or not! If you want to see photos, pm me and I'll share them, I'm just not comfortable putting them out there.